Overview

- In 2018, the median household income in Tower Hamlets is £29,937, this was slightly less than London (£30,677) but greater than England (£27,901). The mean household income was £36,808, slightly more than London (£36,421) and greater than England (£32,513).

- 50 per cent of households in Tower Hamlets, in 2018, had a household income of less than £30,000 (London 49 per cent and England 55 per cent) and 86 per cent had less than £60,000 (London 88 per cent and England 91 per cent)

- 14 per cent of households had a household income of less than £15,000 and 3 per cent had a household income of greater than £100,000

- Amongst the London boroughs Tower Hamlets was 17th with a median household income of £29,937. City of London had the highest median household income of £44,546 and Barking & Dagenham had the lowest at £22,008. The median household income ranged from £18,714 in LSOA E01004236 Bromley North ward to £53,166 in LSOA E01004277 in Canary Wharf ward.

Half of the 144 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) had percentages (ranging from 15 to 34 per cent) of households with less than £15,000 household income, which were greater than the borough average (14 per cent).

The percentage of households with a household income of less than £30,000 ranged from 83 per cent in LSOA E01004236 (within Bromley North ward) and 14 per cent in LSOA E01004277 (Canary Wharf ward).

The geographic distribution of household income shows greater incomes in the south and west of the borough with lower incomes in the east and central areas.

Lansbury ward has the highest concentrations of households with a household income of less than £30,000.

Just over half (12) of the wards in Tower Hamlets had a median household income less than the Borough average of £29,937.

The lowest median household income is £22,213 in Lansbury ward, which is less than half of the highest median household income in St Katharine’s and Wapping ward (£45,654). Household Income Distribution (percentage), Tower Hamlets Wards 2018

- St Katharine’s & Wapping ward has the lowest percentage (24 per cent) of households with less than £30,000 household income and the highest percentage (31 per cent) of households with household income greater than £60,000. Lansbury ward has the highest percentage (70 per cent) of households with household income less than £30,000; this is almost 3 times the percentage of St Katharine’s & Wapping ward.

- 12 of the wards have greater percentage than the Borough average, (14 per cent,) of households with less than £15,000 household income.

Median Household Income Tower Hamlets, London, 2015-2018

- From 2015 to 2017 the median household income for Tower Hamlets has increased by just under £3,000 in total, however, in 2018 the median household income fell back by over £1,200.

- Over the past four years the gap between London and Tower Hamlets median household incomes has decreased by £2,000 from £2,734 in 2015 to £740 in 2018. Over the past 4 years the distribution of household incomes within Tower Hamlets has remained relatively stable.

The percentage of households with a household income of between £60,000 and £100,000 has increased by 3 percentage points to 2017 but then decreased again back to 10 per cent in 2018.

Between 2015 and 2018 the percentage of households with a household income of £30-60,000 increased by 3 per cent and those with less than £15,000 decreased by 4 per cent.

Source: CACI

Data: 2017 Equivilised Paycheck data

Pay check data provides gross household income estimates at postcode level for the UK. CACI uses data from Ocean, CACI’s lifestyle database, combined with data from the ONS’s Average Weekly Earnings and Living Costs & Food Survey, to build their income model. It is important to note that Pay check data is modelled annual household income data, presented as modelled gross household income (‘unequivalised’), and household income adjusted for household size (‘equivalised’). This means that the data is not based on real administrative datasets.

The 2018 household income data has been based on a household population for the borough of 134,266, calculated by CACI.

All figures in this briefing are based on the 2018 ‘equivilised’ data set.

Definitions: Equivilisation

Equivilising data reflects the notion that a household of five, for example, will need a higher income than a single person living alone to enjoy a comparable standard of living. The equivilisation process takes a couple living with no children as a reference point and adjusts the incomes of larger households downwards relative to this benchmark (i.e. assumes that a higher income would be needed for a larger household to have the same standard of living). The incomes of smaller households are adjusted upwards relative to the reference household type, recognising that the same income would allow smaller households a better standard of living.

Find out more

For more in-depth analysis about Tower Hamlets, please visit the Borough Statistics page on the council’s website or get in touch with the team at cru@towerhamlets.gov.uk.